The first Singrey of which we have any authentic account, Christian, came to America in the year of 1746 from Switzerland, where he was born near Lucerne, on September 27, 1723. He received a liberal education and became a gifted surgeon. Upon arriving in America he settled in Pennsylvania. His naturalization papers (September 27, 1753) bear the seal of the crown of Great Britain and the signiture of William Penn.
After practicing medicine for several years, he returned to Switzerland, where he married Elizabeth Ingold, who it is said was only thirteen years old. They then returned to the Colonies and settled in Baltimore, Maryland.
Christian served as a surgeon in the American army and was stationed in Baltimore throughout the war. He earned the Colonial government money in gold and silver, and for payment received colonial script, which later became worthless.
After the war, he worked at his profession and prospered. He soon owned a large tract of land and was considered wealthy for the time. Christian and Elizabeth had nine children: Eve, Elizabeth, Jacob, Anna, Christian, Alice, John, Jehu and Ingold. Christian died June 1, 1817, and Elizabeth died July 17, 1813.
Christian's eighth child, Jehu, was born on August 16, 1779. He became a miller and millwright. On October 30, 1808, he married Jennie Lemmon of Baltimore County, Maryland. The couple lived in Baltimore County until September of 1815 when they moved to Monrow County in Ohio. They settled in the cabin of John Shauk, Jehu's brother-in-law. By the spring of 1816, he had built his own cabin, and Jennie moved there. The morning they moved in, Jehu met three Indians, one of ehom whistled, and motioned him to stay back. Looking into the hollow, he saw three deer feeding, and shot one of them. Divided the meat with the Indians, and their friendship. They called him the "White Chief," and he learned to speak their language.
The Singrey's were happy and successful in Ohio. Jehu pursued his trade and helped to build several of the first mills in the area. In 1817, he was elected the first Justice-of-the-Peace of Perry Township. He had six children: Elizabeth, Rachel, Sarah, Joshua, David and Alice. Alice died on April 23, 1847. Jennie had died 16 years earlier on May 9, 1931.
On February 11, 1822 Jehu's fifth child, David Markey Lemmon Singrey was born on the homestead. As a child, he worked on the farm, attending school in Perry Township, and later in Belleview. At eighteen, he began to study medicine, and established his practice on the homestead in 1847. In 1856, he married Charlotte A. Bonar, and in 1857, their first child, Hoy, was born. He was followed by Thomas, Lucy, Fred and Ben. David Singrey was a respected citizen of Perry Township. They lived there until his death.
His son, Hoy Leland Singrey, born on November 20, 1857, grew up in Perry Township. As an adult, he lived in Bellview, Ohio where he was a telegraph operator for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. On July 27, 1886 he married Mary Frances Brown of Delaware, Ohio, a penmanship teacher and a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Hoy Singrey later became County Auditor and kept the town jail for a time. Their children were Paul Herbert, born December 20, 1889, and Violet Lucille, born February 14, 1897.
Added by Robin Stambaugh:
Violet Singrey was born in Argos, Indiana. One of her childhood memories involves a friendship with a prisoner in her father's jail, a daring activity for a young girl. The family moved to California when she was in high school, and she graduated from Huntington Park High School in 1915. She attended Los Angeles Normal School, a teacher's college that later became UCLA. Violet later returned to Montana where her brother was homesteading. She taught in a one-room schoolhouse. She attended dances in town where one of the many men present was Ira Vernon Stambaugh of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ira was a business partner with her brother Paul. They were married on April 3, 1918 just prior to Ira leaving for France during World War I.
Violet and Ira had what might be thought of as two families. George Vernon, Barbara Jean and Paul David, followed nine years later by Robert Alan and Richard Eugene.
Ira Stambaugh worked for many years for the Fuller Brush Company and after retiring, loved to travel. Violet and Ira traveled throughout the
World and were on their last trip together when Ira succumbed to a heart attack while visiting Istanbul, Turkey in 1970.
Violet continued to live in Whittier, California where she and Ira had resided from 1948 until their passing.
1 J. Lawrence Van Buskirk was David Markey Lemmon Singrey's teacher in the first schoolhouse constructed in Perry Township, Ohio. Mr. Van Buskirk wrote the Singrey History in 1890.
Grandma Singrey's Photo Page